#32

I felt much more grateful for my birthday than I have in prior years (as affirmed by my previous 11 years of posting on Facebook- thanks for the memories, Mark Z.!). I think the accident reminded me that life can sure change in a hurry and that mine is pretty nice right now. 

Anyway, you won't see pictures of my early birthday dinner with my Dad and Diana, nor did I photograph the homemade dinner Jackson made for me on the 13th before leaving for a work trip because sometimes I forget to take photos! 

I could get used to coming home from work to presents! 

As I mentioned previously, I had to work on campus Monday (13th) to get my computer and renew all my access to things. I came home to an awesome dinner and gifts from both Jackson and my Mom and Guy. I got a new iPad (thank you, Mom and Guy) and a new Apple watch band, perfume and my favorite cupcake from Jackson (all of which I really wanted so hooray). It was great and then Jackson had to leave (yes, we'd just gotten home super late the night before from NYC so he only got to sleep for a few hours in his own bed- poor guy!). 

I planned to work on Tuesday (my actual birthday) and then meet Jackson in Bloomington (his work location for the next day) in the evening. The weather did not cooperate, though. It rained all darned day which made driving seem less than desirable to me (I'm still not 100% back to my normal self about driving- I actually hate it now because I feel a sense of panic each time I'm behind the wheel) so I decided to stay home. I worked, read a book and just felt a little down. I am, luckily, not at all used to feeling lonely. I took myself to a late lunch at Chuy's and sat alone in the bar reading on my Kindle before deciding to just go home and snuggle with my pup.

Sweetest little puppy company!

I have renewed my devotion to making people feel special for their birthday, though. This was a good reminder. Due to some mail issues I did not get a single card on my actual birthday itself and only got a single phone call (thanks, Heidi, Jax and Jocelin for the singing greeting). I think with Facebook and texting we've lost a bit of that human contact that we really still need. I cried a couple of times about being lonely and unimportant to people (hey- I may be 32, but I am still sensitive) before finally calling it a night. (Note: I also think working remotely makes one a little more lonely than normal as I generally get greetings from co-workers and only got one this year.)

I woke up the next day feeling better about things (perhaps we put too much pressure on birthdays being excellent days) and got to work. Then Jackson came home and we had a quick dinner together before I went to meet my friend Amber for a movie. She agreed to suffer through "Me Before You" with me which was really just 1.5 hours of listening to me cry. She also brought me back coffee from her recent trip to Puerto Rico so I was elated!

Thursday I worked again (ugh, retirement was sure short!) and met my mom for a quick lunch. Working remotely is nice in that you can kind of set your own schedule and it frees you up for lunches around Indy!

Susie picked us up for my belated birthday dinner-- we had to wait for Jackson to be back in town! She "owed" me a trip to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse so that is where we went. Man, it was an awesome meal!

Susie and Jackson looking nice

Petefish

Chocolate strawberries are my favorite fruit

We had a seriously awesome meal (complete with lots of dessert) there and cannot wait to win the lottery and return one day- ha!

Doesn't MacK look just bummed to go
stay with Grammy again?!

After dinner Susie took MacKenzie home with her since we have an early flight the next morning. After this trip to Florida we'll get to keep MacKenzie at home for almost an entire month before shipping her off-- what a treat!!